Dan Crisler

A Cheerio Society

This is the story of two groups in an undisclosed city: Plain Cheerios and Sugar Cheerios.

Plain Cheerios were considered the desirables in this society. The Plains inherited all the good looks, the athleticism, and the social skills. Everything came natural to the Plains. It was most everyone's desire to bed a Plain Cheerio.

In contrast, most everyone considered a Sugar Cheerio to encompass everything wrong with society. Sugar Cheerios were often gluttonous and considered unintelligent. Their gluttonous ways contributed to their funny looks that sent every man, woman, and child screaming when they encountered a Sugar. As a result, Sugar Cheerios were shunned from society, only mingling with others when circumstances warranted.

Those who were neither a Plain nor a Sugar Cheerio fell somewhere in between. They did not possess a pristine look the Plain Cheerios possessed. But neither did they share the extreme negative traits the Sugars possessed. These In-Betweens made up the majority of society, but for some reason, they were not happy with their own looks and aspired to be something they were not.

At some point in time, they established that being Plain was considered the epitome of beauty, while the Sugars may as well have been the poster children for nuclear radiation public service announcements.

These In-Betweens were instilled with these values from a young age by their parents and the Plains that dominated the media. In the schoolyard, they sang jump rope rhymes mocking the Sugars:

"One-foot, two-foot, three-foot go! All the Frostees need to blow Their heads off and go away Leave us to a brand new day!"

"Frostees" was the main derogatory name for the Sugars and was one of the first terms instilled in the vocabularies of the Plains and the In-Betweens. While the In-Betweens jumped, the Plains would often sit on the sidelines and join in on the heckling, often creating new jump rope rhymes for the In-Betweens to sing.

As everyone became older, the discrimination of the Sugars only grew worse. As the jump rope rhymes began to fade, the violence against the Sugars exploded. Sugars were often beaten to unconsciousness. Any attempt to fight back was met with harsh brutality by the Establishment, who often looked the other way when the In-Betweens and the Plains instigated it.

Even in their adult life, the Plains and the In-Betweens mocked the Sugars and discriminated them from attaining respectable economic status. Whenever they could, the Plains and In-Betweens deprived the Sugars of whatever was desirable.

While the Plains and the In-Betweens may be able to control the societal functions, they could not control the weather. This became their detriment when freakishly strong blizzards repeatedly pounded their city over a few weeks, trapping every Cheerio in their boxes. The supply lines were cut off, depriving every Cheerio the nutrients needed to sustain life at a comfortable pace, forcing them to live on their bodily reserves.

Since Plain Cheerios had no reserves, most of them perished by the time the supply lines were able to get through. The In-Betweens also suffered heavy losses, but not as catastrophic as the Plains.

Meanwhile, most of the Sugars survived, as the excess sugar on their bodies was digested to fuel them through the blizzards.

When the city was dug out and the supply lines restored, the Sugars found themselves the ruling class of the city. While they now had the power and reason to extract their revenge on the Plains and In-Betweens, a majority of them decided to be welcoming instead, knowing that brutality is never the answer in a productive society.